SHORT GRAVES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 94, 5 March 1862, Page 6

SHORT GRAVES.

Why do so many children die ? Why are 0111 cemetries filled with short graves ? AVhy do more than half of the children born never reach the age of manhood ? Is it because God hns not made man as wisely, — or as well as He made the ox or the dog ? Who would think of raising cattle or horses if five out of every ten died before being old enough to come to the yoke or tht harness. There must be some great mistake in the original organization of man, or else some egre gious errors in the habits and training of the human race. There arc several reasons for these early deaths for this want of stamina in the human constitu tion. And let it be remarked, that it is not anion' tho poor and ignorant, the hardworking and plaii living class, where we find the greatest infantili mortality. It is with those who are well housed and have a plenty of food and raiment and cub ture. True, among the poor there are mam deaths from contagious diseases, anel occasionally an instance of wasting decay ; but the ragged barefooted, and plainly fed labourer's child, ii more often ruddy, rollicking, hearty and health} man the wcll-carcd-for child of the opulent. Nc doubt extra warm rooms and too little out-of-dooi exercise sends many a child to the grave. Candies rich food, irritating condiments, and this everlasting nibbling between meals of cakes delicacies tend to impair the young stomach and debilitate the nervous system' and produce earthly death : hut we believe the prime destroyer of children o: to-day is tobacco, flanked on cither hand, by its coadjutors, tea and coffee, and in many instances supplemented with that scourge of scourges, alcoholic drink. Boys chew and smoke tobacco. They think it manly and smart. Thus, in the years of growth. they shatter their nervous systems, derange their digestive ancl circulatory apparatus, and fail tc develop into that brawny, robust manhood which Nature intended in their organisation. They become pale, sallow, lank in the cheek and lank in abdomen, weak iv the back, and weak in the head, fretful, fidgetty, and not more than half developed. Many boys of seventeen, when we aclvise them not to smoke tell us they cannot possibly leave off smoking ; they must either chew ior smoke! ancl they reveal to us the amount ol t their indulgence in this respect, which is really alarming. Ten, twelve cigars a day is nothing . uncommon ;an amount, indeed, every day suffi- . eient to kill three men who were not previously r accustomed to the vile weed. These boys do nof - attain to their normal growth by an inch ancl a- - half in height aud twenty-five to fifty pounds in weight, and are lean, scrawny, nervous, half- . built wrecks. They marry the daughters, per- . haps, of men of similar habits, and these daughters, housed up in ladyhood without exercise, accustomed to strong coffee and tea, they are about las nervous, ancl nearly as much debilitated, as their tobacco-smoking bridegrooms. They have children born to them, ancl from such parents can .. healthy children be expected. It is said that the Feejee cannibals have become wiser than to kill tobacco-users for the purpose of food ; for tbey find it impossible to eat them, so satnrated have they become with the poisonous drug !As a cannibal will not eat a tobacco user it is fair to suppose that children will inherit the nervous condition and debilitated state :of a parent so saturates. Many a mother nurses her child after having two or three cups of strong coffee, and that child from birth, to speak bluntly, is drunk on coffee till from enlargement of brain or brain fever, it is hurried off to a tiny grave. The use of tobacco produces, on nearly all who use it, more or less disease of the throat. Who shall say the prevailing epidemic, Diptheria, was not born of tobacco ? Our young men must quitl tobacco, or the race will be ruined.— American' Phrenological Journal.

New Inventions.—Some curious machines are hemic offered to the public at the present exhibition at Metz. Among others is a parachute, invented by M. .lacquer, of Arras, to prevent the accidents to which workmen in mines are subject from the brenking of the ropes during their desccut. M. Van Guidertacben exhibits a collection of instruments for cooling beer, and other liquors served iv publiehnusps during hot weather. Oue is a glass pump, wliich is safe against the attacks'of acids, and which ices the liquor according as it is drawn from the cellar. A machine?, invented by M. Genez, ofthe Doulw, manufactures 401) nails in a minute. A machine for corking bottles is moved with the foot like the pedal of a piano. By this instrument, whicli costs from 30f. to 3lif'., 250 bottles may be corked in an hour. There arc specimens of paper manufactured solely of hay. McKinlay's Expedition.—'We have been obligingly favored with the use of a letter, containing the subjoined extract, received from a settler at Angipena, and dated January, tbe 30th: —'' We have-had a little information with regard to Mr. McKinlay and party. A blackfello'.v named Frank, whom he took from I'ekins, returned to Toomkatchina at the commencement of this month, and informed me that the party were all well, and that Mr. Ilodgkinson hail joined . the remainder of the party with stores ; bat I could ' not glean from him whether the party had made much j' progress, only that it took him (the native) eight days I 1 to come from their camp to Manuwalkaniuna. He I was ted well by the other tribes all the way in, and was not molested in any way by them." According to this, we understand, Mr. McKinlay would have been, when the native left him, about nine days' journey from Toonkatchina. It will be recollected T that shortly after the discovery of the remains at Lake Pando, Air. Hodgkinson was despatched to the out- ' stations for stores, and was instructed to return as ' early as possible to Mr. McKinlay, who would await ' his return at some arranged spot previous to commencing the Government explorations of the country to tho north-west. As tbe stores were safely received, the expedition is now probably started northward. It is to remain out, we believe, 18 months from tlie date of its leaving Adelaide, ancl will doubtless be the means of supplying ns with much valuable informa- t tion concerning an extensive country which, although c within the boundaries of the colony, is at present al- k |most unknown. The blackfellow mentioned in the * | above extract as sent back by Mr. McKinlay, is pro- f jbably the one whom he spoke of in his diary, and ( whom he took with him as a guide through the coun- . I try beyond Mount Hopeless.— S. A. Advertiser, February Sth. a New Process fob Cleaning Stuffs.—A curious v fact, which promises to lead to important applications, i has just been published by Dr. Autier. Having been t induced to make numerous experiments on lucerne, 1 with a view to test the medicinal properties of a bitter 1 principle it contains, he had discovered in the root of 1 this plant a saponaceous principle, far more abun- v dant and active than that of seapwort (Sapmaria s off,), it being sufficient to shake a root of lucerne £ in water, in order at once to produce a quantity of 1 soapsuds. These roots may be used for scouring r wools, or washing linen, silk, &c. The saponaceous c principle is obtained by simply holding the root in 4 either spring or river water, either entire or previously f beaten into a pulp. If in the latter state, in the f course of half-an-hour's ebullition tliey generally part r with all the soapy substance they contain. During v the boiling a quantity of suds is formed which must ii not be lost. The roots wliich have already been used c may be again employed for washing house linen, and n will do better service than tlio ashes commonly used n for the purpose of making ley. The roots should be S exposed to tbe Hun ancl open air, to dry them ancl pre- a vent their spoiling, but before this they should be a washed, to rid them of the earth sticking to them, d and the stems should be cut off close to the crown of ti the root.- - Galigrumi's Messenger. I

o THE LATB NOGOA TRAGEDY. - Mr. C. B. DuttO'i, one of the earliest settlors in . *he neighbourhood of the late Nogoa tragedy, ''• ivrites thus to iiie Sydney Morning Herald of "■ the 3rd instant, under the head of " Cruelty to 11 the Blacks, aud Murder.of Mr. Wills and hi? "' people" : — Sir, —In your paper of the 12th December appeared a leader, in which a just discrimination bas led you to arrive at the real cause of tlie inunlcr of *• Mr. Wills and party. Before there wereany coinu_ plaints aguinst the blacks in this district, the con- , duet of tho native police was characterised by the grossest cruelty ; the most oppressive anel exasperating acts, inspiring a feeling of hatred, and dey sire of revenge, which the conduct of many whites '" had rather tended to inflame than to soothe or ;t allay. g Being one of the first to settle in this part ofthe ; t district, anel having had the blacks at my head lt , station since I first came out, I have had ample o opportunity of observing the influence upon the ~ blacks of tbe treatment to which they have been 0 subjected, and it required but little discernment, ts hut little knowledge of savage natures, to foretell >t that some such dire catastrophe as thcNogoa murders would he the result. How far the following detailed facts will bear me out in my conclusions, the public will decide, ir The firstact of violence by the native police wason • c a black who had been employed by mc ; he was ie met on the run by two bluemen, who enticed him >t to them by an offer of some tobacco. As soon as tt; he came within carbine raugc they fired at him. g both balls striking him in the arm. He, however, •c succeeded in getting away from them, and hat 1( . been since some months shepherding for one of my neighbours ; the balls arc still in his arm. i_ The next case occurred at Albinia Downs. c- where the blacks had shepherded, I believe, i e nearly all the sheep, besides assisting iv lambing, washing, and other work on the station, for five Sj or six months. A change of managers brought x- a change of policy, and the blacks were turned ,o- out, and not allowed to come on the station. As in they had given no cause for such treatment, they le thought it hard, and could not understand it. I t They used frequently to come up to the station, 1- and ask to be allowed on the run. A complaint IV was made by some one on the station that one of f v these parties "looked suspicious," and "asked j, him for monkeys/ on which the police went out is anel shot some of tbem. My blacks asked me ,y '• what for policemen shoot him, bail blackfellow o kill whitefellow, hail take monkey, hail take )r ration, what for shoot him ? you been yabber s . blackfellow budgery bail policeman shoot him." t- The blacks in this neighborhood have frequently s, told me the Warpahs or Nogoa blacks would kill te some whitefellow for those shot at Albinia Downs. . Soon after this occurrence at Albinia Downs I 3i sent out for some Macks who had been working ts for me when I first came out, to receive a gift of ;s tomahawks and blankets ; they came in, eight ~ men with their gins and children, twenty-five in all. The police came up and declared tlieir mit tention of turning them out, saying that their i orders were to disperse blacks wherever they | r found them, and at once proceeded to drive them 0 out, by threatening to shoot them, carrying off I, all their implements and burning them ; despite ~ my urgent representations tliat the blacks were n in at my especial request, at the same time ie pointing out to the officer the outrageous injus >. tice of such a procedure. The answer of our l_ Government to the complaint preferred against s _ the officer in this matter, is that " they fail to lv discover anything but a strict discharge of duty jf on the part of the officer impugned." y Since the murder on the Nogoa, Mr. Bligh, "„ the commandant, came up to Mr. Steele's station, jt and drove the blacks away, who were then washy ing sheep, off the place, although Mr. Steele ex- " >t plained to him that all the blacks then on the L . place had been camped there, without intcrmisn sion, for five or six months ; tliat they were one p. hundred miles from the scene of the murder, ancl .. a perfectly distinct and antagonistic tribe. On ~ the same day they met a black woman belonging j, to a Murray Kiver boy, in Mr. Steele's employ[t ment, while out with her sheep ; they galloped s their horses over her, bruising anel lacerating her p dreadfully, one of the horses treading on her leg n below the knee, tearing away the flesh down to the ankle, and almost severing the sinews of the ~ heel. They then came over to my station, and '_ endeavoured to drive away the gins belonging to 1 Mr. Walker's boys, who are n«--- nit with him in c search of Burke ; Mr. Blijl' '-- Aliening, when ~ I put them into the housed ,; ut'c¥-the reach of 1 his violence, " That if they Were not off by toe morrow they might look out." They then hunted some blacks who were shepherding for me away j. from their sheep, leaving their sheep in the j bush. 1 There are many other cases equally violent j and unjust, of which, however; I have no personal knowledge, nor any direct and reliable , evidence ; these that I have here stated are of , necessity much curtailed, but I affirm that, in , all essential points, they are substantially cort rect. , The puhlic but rarely, if ever, hear- of the cruelties, persecution, goading to madness, which the blacks suffer at the hands of the native ) police. On the contrary, any act of violence by i the blacks is quickly known throughout the co'.o- ---! nies, and without any inquiry into the treatment > that may have caused it, a universal cry of cxc- ■ oration and hatred follows. * To show that I have long foreseen the effect of such treatment on the blacks, I give an extract from a letter I wrote tbe commandant ofthe force [on the occasion of the blacks being driven off my . station, and all their things burnt :— , " These blacks, wretched, debased, and brutal • as they are, have still one feeling in common witb I whites, a ieeJing never-dormant in the mind of a i savage, that of deep, implacable revenge for un* ;. provoked injury." And again, in a letter to the ' 1 North Australian —" Will the blacks exonerate tlie settler when they know him to receive on ' friendly terms, and ration the perpetrators of such ruffianism ? No, he seeks the first favorable opportunity for revenge, and some unfortunate shepherd, or unprotected traveller, falls a victim to the iniquitous acts of a force to which we are told to look for protection." An honest and impartial inquiry into the acts and general working ofthe police force would suffice to convince any man not warped by prejudice, lor blinded by rage, that the whites have suffered . neither more nor less than retributive justice, j though, as too often happens in these cases, it 'bus fallen on innocent persons. t From day to day there is a gathering upon 1 credible evidence of wanton cruelty, sufficient I ] trust to arouse the public mind from this long- I sustained torpor, that humanity may assert its i rights, and stem the current of irresponsible c wrqngdoing. | C. B. Dutto.n-. I Baohinfa Downs, 10 th January. 1